Arthur’s Garden
Up the Garden Path, Down Memory Lane
£14.99
"As I stand at my kitchen sink and look across at what we optimistically call our herb garden, to one side I see an old wooden sign on which are carved the words ‘Arthur’s Garden’. Arthur doesn’t live here. My wonderful great-uncle died nearly thirty years ago having spent most of his long life in the Victorian terraced house in which his mother had brought up eleven children. The sign had stood in the garden there for decades, a gift to the man who’d always cherished that small patch of Kent, creating a riot of glorious colour which lit up the row of long, narrow strips that tumbled down to a line of back gates from which you could look across the lane to the local coal yard below."
In Arthur’s Garden, Pam Rhodes collates a heart-warming collection of songs and poems, advice and tit bits about the glorious, very ordinary, English garden – told through the life of her Uncle Arthur. This is a gardening book, with a story.
Reviews for Arthur’s Garden
'I was simply entranced by this book; I could not put it down! What a delightful story of a man's love of his garden and how it penetrated the life of an ordinary family. I am not given to tears, but I had more than a lump in my throat reading Arthur's Garden. It moved me very deeply and deserves a wide readership.' - George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury
'What an enchanting book. Arthur's Garden is a charming, easy, and interesting read. It will bring back many different memories for many of us and perhaps enlighten younger readers of what times gone by were really like. Sadly, I never had a delightful Great Uncle Arthur in my life, but I did have a dad who embarrassed us all by rushing out from our garden flat with a shovel to scoop up the horse droppings whenever the milk cart came by. How important our small London garden was to him; a life-long obsession and hobby. He and Arthur would have got along very well!' - Valerie Singleton OBE, television and radio presenter
'This is a heart-warming read, filled with delights. It is history told through the life of a small domestic garden and its owner, Arthur; a magical reflection on the part our gardens played through two major wars and during the aftermath. I found it a truly original idea, filled with nostalgic charm.' Wendy Craig, actor, author and entertainer
'A timely reminder of the humour and solace of the garden in a frantic world.' - Alan Titchmarsh